Dragon's Awakening: The Duke's Son Is Changing The Plot-Chapter 165 - 164 - Round Two Over?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

It was as if the world had split.

The demon’s chest erupted in a geyser of black blood and red-hot gore as the nanoparticles inside detonated.

Chunks of armor and flesh exploded outward in a screamless burst. Fire lit the sky. Smoke curled around the ruined trees.

The demon howled—for the first time.

"ROAR!!!"

Its body jerked.

Then it fell to its knees.

A void-deep growl rumbled from its throat, its glowing eyes flickering and arms twitching.

For the first time since the fight started, they had drawn blood.

Dark, syrupy demon blood hissed as it hit the earth.

The demon tried to press the wound, trying to stop the blood, but it wasn’t of any effect.

The blood flowed out like a fountain.

Alex stood beside Rufus, jaw still dripping with burned fragments.

"I hate that I’m saying this," he wheezed, "but... that was hot."

Blargh coughed inside him. "Can we try eating the heart next time?"

Rufus, however, was tense.

His grin was gone.

Because, unlike Alex, he was focusing on the demon, and he could see that it wasn’t dead.

Even the wound on its chest was healing at an alarming rate.

"...I don’t think it’s over," Rufus finally muttered, his eyes fixed on the demon, making Alex’s expression freeze.

"...What?" He looked ahead, only to see the demon rising again.

Its glowing eyes turned toward them as its blood stopped flowing.

"You should’ve gone for the head."

That was all it said before it closed its eyes.

"Fuck... I have a bad feeling about whatever it’s doing..." Alex muttered.

"Isn’t it our cue to stop it from doing whatever it wants to do?" Blargh asked, and Alex nodded.

"I think it is."

BOOM!

Without a word to Rufus, Alex shot forward with a sonic boom, the ground shattering wherever his molten claws touched.

The shockwave had barely faded when Rufus turned backward.

He didn’t rush forward like a fool. He didn’t shout. He didn’t flinch.

Instead, he raised one of his arms, palms open, and aimed toward the cave. Toward where the others were.

With a sharp exhale, the repulser on his palm snapped open, glowing with pent-up fury.

FZZZZZZZAAAARRRRRKKK!!!

A blinding column of white plasma screamed into the sky and curved down—slamming into the mountainside just above the cave entrance.

It wasn’t to collapse it. Just enough to rattle the bones of everyone inside.

It was a call for help.

It was his way of telling them that there was something out here that Alex and he alone couldn’t handle.

But then—

WHOOSH—

A blur.

Black. Silent. Impossible.

Something shot past Rufus so fast it peeled the air from his lungs. He didn’t even register movement, only displacement. Then—

KRRAAAKAA-BOOOOOOM!!!

The sound hit late as the wind crashed on him from behind, almost making him stagger.

But he didn’t turn back to look at what had happened; instead, he focused on the blur.

A black comet slammed into the mountainside beside the cave with a BOOM, flattening stone and sending chunks the size of boulders flying.

In the center of that chaos was Alex—his body flailing mid-air like a ragdoll before embedding into the rock.

"...Alex?" Rufus whispered.

He turned back toward the field, and what he saw made his breath catch.

The demon stood, not in flames, not in gore—but shrouded in a shifting black aura, thick like oil and reeking of something ancient and wrong.

Its feet flexed slightly, clawed toes digging into the earth. Steam hissed from its body. The wound in its chest—gone.

It was then that Rufus realized that it was the demon that had sent Alex flying like that.

Suddenly, the demon’s glowing eyes turned toward him.

Rufus’s instincts screamed.

He flared his boosters.

’NOW!’

His entire back ignited with thunder, and he shot up like a missile—

But the demon’s eyes flickered.

That was all.

Then it stomped.

The earth cracked and buckled.

A slab of stone, the size of a cart, erupted upward like a levered trap. Before Rufus could even move—

THWOOOM!!!

The demon hurled it with godless force.

It wasn’t a throw.

It was a sniper shot.

Rufus turned just in time to see the jagged boulder flying at him like divine punishment. He barely managed a half-shield—

CRASH!!!

Impact.

Pain.

Unfiltered, raw pain.

His armor shattered at the sides, his organs slamming into each other like dice in a cup. He felt blood burst in his mouth. His vision inverted.

Then he was flying—no, falling—crashing down a slope and bouncing off stone and root.

.........................

Inside the crater near the cave, Alex stirred.

Smoke coiled off his body.

His limbs were twisted at angles even a monster shouldn’t have survived. His right arm looked like spaghetti with bones.

His legs were bent backward.

Blargh, the symbiote wrapped around his body, flickered like static. A chunk of his face was missing, slowly knitting itself together.

"...Okay," Alex groaned, coughing embers. "Okay... That was... a warm-up punch. Heh. Totally saw that coming."

"You... didn’t," Blargh wheezed. "I saw your brain shut off."

"Well, it felt like I saw it coming."

Molten black skin crawled over his body again, bubbling as it reformed his limbs. His fingers snapped back with a grotesque POP, and his spine shifted with a cracking crunch.

"Ow ow ow—okay, reset almost complete."

Blargh oozed over his back like living tar, popping another bone in place while asking. "So... round two?"

Alex, groaning with pain, exhaled. "Nope. Round get up slowly and stall until backup—"

But then—

Whoosh—Crash!

Rufus, now a mess, crashed beside him on the cave’s wall.

His armor was in ruins. The front was gone, revealing bloodied skin and shredded nanoweave.

Alex squinted his eyes, and seeing the guy’s chest heaving, he nodded, focusing back on his popping bones as if it was fine as long as the guy was alive.

It was only after he was done with his body and heard Rufus’s groan that he spoke to the guy.

"Still breathing?" Alex asked, his tone relaxed, but his eyes were focused on the demon as it had started walking again.

"Barely," Rufus muttered, voice distorted by his damaged helmet. "That... bastard."

His internal HUD flickered. Nanoparticles were low—he could feel them receding like a tide.

He gave a mental command, directing every available unit to distribute evenly—reinforce his vitals, his brain, spine, and joints.

There was no need for aesthetics now. No show.

He had to survive this time.

"How long do you think it will take to reach here?" Alex asked.

Rufus glanced back at the field, then toward the cave, eyes narrowing.

"Fifteen seconds, maybe. Unless he runs. Then... maybe one."

Alex, now at his limit, growled. "Stall?"

"Stall," Rufus nodded.

"Good." Alex straightened, his molted claw crackling to life as he grinned wider. "Because if that freak thinks we’re just two weaklings in the dirt..."

Rufus finished for him, wiping the blood off his lips.

"...Then he hasn’t met our group yet."

Then, without a word, both of them shot forward.

..................................

At the same time, inside the cave.

The earth trembled beneath their feet.

A new explosion rang out—deep, bone-shaking. It didn’t echo like normal. It lingered, crawling into their skin.

Clara spoke first, her senses sharp.

"...That wasn’t just an attack," she said, eyes narrowing.

"It sounded like a god’s fart," Siris chirped with her dagger twirling on her fingers.

Everyone turned to her, making her look at them with her head tilted. "Hm? Did I say something wrong? If human fart can cause the air to vibrate, then this much is called for if it’s a god fart—"

"Siris," Raven’s tired yet serious voice silenced Siris as she turned forward with a pout, muttering. "I was just expressing my thoughts."

However, they forgot that there was another girl in their group that lacked common sense.

"Is she telling the truth? Was that how a god’s fart sounds?" Graye asked, bouncing on her feet before she continued, her voice tinged with disappointment now. "I thought it was a boss fight..."

Everyone’s lips parted, wanting to correct her, but decided against it.

Selena, who was running beside Graye, shook her head, moving faster, her shadow stretching along the ground like a serpentine tide, its mouth snapping open as if tasting the air as she approached Raven.

Jessy’s brow furrowed. She hadn’t spoken yet—but her iron dust was floating beside her, ready for action on a second’s notice.

"Is it really taking this long?" Lia muttered, panting slightly as roots gently carried her over rocks and debris to keep her steps clean. "Those two aren’t weak enough to not be able to deal with some minor issue, right...?"

"Exactly." Raven’s voice cut through the din like a blade. Calm. Cold. But in his eyes, there was stormlight.

He ran ahead of them, not fast—but with every step, his presence grew heavier.

Nibbles rode on his shoulder, eyes sharp, claws braced as his little heart thudded like a war drum.

He had no jokes now.

No bravado.

Only the bitter taste of something wrong.

It was then that Omni pulsed on Raven’s shoulder. "Shouldn’t you lot be hurrying?"

The moment those words sounded, all of them sped up, and in a second, they were near the cave’s entrance.

Slowly, they saw light through cracked stone and smoke, framed by shredded trees and melted rock.

There was another blast.

Then—nothing.

No sounds. No banter. No sarcasm from Alex. No grunting from Rufus. Just silence.

Dead.

Still.

Heavy.

With tension in the air, they reached the entrance, and then, they saw it.

Everyone froze.

Even Raven.

Their eyes widened in unison.

Because the demon was standing there—waiting—in front of the crater.

Tall. Towering.

It was dripping with shadows like molten oil. Its eyes glowed with a slow, burning malice.

In each of its hands...

—Alex, broken and limp, the goo covering half his face missing, but he was somehow still grinning.

—Rufus, armor in tatters, bloodied but alive, his mouth a thin red line of defiance.

Both men hung like dolls. freewebnσvel.cѳm

They weren’t unconscious, nor were they defeated.

However, they were pinned.

They couldn’t move.

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